A bipartisan group of lawmakers on Thursday asked for a meeting with Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson over the company’s plans to deny funding for its Southwest Chief route pending additional financial investments.

The letter, penned by multiple House and Senate lawmakers in both parties, argues the route that runs through Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico is “vital to the economic well-being of our communities.”

“The lack of transparency by Amtrak management about its changing position on the Southwest Chief is troubling, particularly for a Government-Sponsored Enterprise entrusted with an important public transportation mission,” the letter reads.

“We request Amtrak take the lead in developing cooperative plans to ensure the Southwest Chief’s successful operation, including seeking funding from the various federal grant programs established to address these specific issues.”

Maybe Congress can get enough pull to push Anderson out and bring in someone who has customer service skills and experience and railroad skills and experience!

You know, one thing I've wondered about. Why exactly did Anderson leave Delta to begin with? If he really and truly "retired" then why did he come on board at Amtrak? Or, did the Delta board push him out?

And then there's Wick Moorman. At the beginning of the year it was publicly stated that he would be staying on at Amtrak as a "consultant" for an unspecified length of time. Is he still there now? If so, why? Why should taxpayers fund Amtrak to effectively employ TWO chiefs? And if by chance Moorman's still there he sure doesn't appear to be helping matters any.

Maybe Congress can get enough pull to push Anderson out and bring in someone who has customer service skills and experience and railroad skills and experience!

You know, one thing I've wondered about. Why exactly did Anderson leave Delta to begin with? If he really and truly "retired" then why did he come on board at Amtrak? Or, did the Delta board push him out?

And then there's Wick Moorman. At the beginning of the year it was publicly stated that he would be staying on at Amtrak as a "consultant" for an unspecified length of time. Is he still there now? If so, why? Why should taxpayers fund Amtrak to effectively employ TWO chiefs? And if by chance Moorman's still there he sure doesn't appear to be helping matters any.

Huh? Is that for sure a fact or a rumor? Remember, the other day we were discussing rumors. *IF* that's really true the question begs to be asked, why is he working there? Certainly not because he's a foaming-at-the-mouth passenger train fan.

In any event, I'm glad that there are some law makers who are going to begin asking some very serious questions. It just seems to me that Congress had the good will last year to bump up Amtrak funding - which was a refreshing change from the annual cuts - but some of Anderson's actions almost seem like a slap in the face. Or is it all just very, very bad communication? It'd be swell to know exactly WHAT his intentions really are.

According to a Bloomberg online article from June 26, 2017, Anderson's "contract calls for three years of employment at zero salary, although he can receive a $500,000 bonus at the discretion of the railroad's board of directors."

Sorry I couldn't get a link to it to work, but that is a direct quote from the article. It was written by Elise Young, for those of you with better tech skills than I have who might want to look for it and read the whole thing.

The greatest danger that the Southwest Chief faces at present IMHO is the possible failure of Rail Runner to meet the PTC deadline. Of all the potential PTC outages that were discussed at the Spring RPA Meeting, the Rail Runner one appeared to be the most problematic. Working through Senator Nelson's office we have determined that the two Florida ones will get resolved by December. Nothing similar has been found about the Rail Runner yet.

Well, I thought I heard that lines which are protected by the older Automatic Train Stop ( which I thought this line is ) would be granted a waiver for an unclear period of time. Is that incorrect or perhaps misunderstood?

I would like to revisit this post that I made a while back. It was stated that in order for this to happen, "Congress would have to change the law"? Really? This same thing was just reported in the most recent issue of TRAINS Magazine that the FRA is considering allowing the Santa Fe's old ATS as a substitute for PTC on a temporary basis. Did anyone else see that? Or, maybe I just didn't understand the TRAINS article right.

You right Fred, the Trains article said Railrunner will be using the Santa Fe ATS system on a temporary basis. This was the first time I've heard of such a solution, but apparently it can only be used on an interim basis until a real PTC system is installed.

One thing that I think is most unfortunate in today’s world is that several railroads such as the SP and IC ripped out hundreds of miles of ATS. Even the Santa Fe removed their ATS on the San Joaquin Valley line following the discontinuance of Trains 1 & 2, the San Franscisco Chief in 1971.

Several rail advocates and journalists have opined that Congress should’ve considered accepting ATS as a substitute for PTC on a permanent basis since it was a proven, off-the-shelf technology that would’ve worked.

But, no matter. It is what it is, I guess.

Maybe in the end something good will come out of this mess. According to another article in the most recent TRAINS issue, BNSF’s Matt Rose seems to think so.

Huh? Is that for sure a fact or a rumor? Remember, the other day we were discussing rumors. *IF* that's really true the question begs to be asked, why is he working there? Certainly not because he's a foaming-at-the-mouth passenger train fan.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple his official salary was 1 dollar a year, but of course in reality he made much more than that through stock options and things. Of course stock options are not guarnteed income but the better the business does. the more is in it for you. Jobs definitely made the Apple stock price go up up up and must have made himself quite a bit in the process.

Of course Amtrak doesn't have stocks. But maybe they gave him a contract in which only bonuses are payed based on achieving goals rather than there being a guaranteed base salary.